UK Blog #2 - Welcome to London

Wow, so here we go. I'm sitting in a cafe in Leicester Square drinking some pretty bad coffee, and waiting for a nice, hot greasy breakfast to arrive. While I'm here I'm reflecting on my first full day in London, which was yesterday. Well, yesterday in London time. I don't have the brain power to figure out when the hell it was if you're anywhere else.

Bad coffee at Leicester Sq.

I stepped off the plain and cleared Immigration and Customs with relative ease. I guess they like Australians, because despite the fact that the guy behind the desk looked clinically depressed, I made it through with relative ease.

Today's Lesson: Border security officers aren't especially chatty.

Then Mel's beautiful smiling face was waiting for me at the arrival gate and we took a tube (YES, I TOOK A TUBE) to Westminster. Incidentally, the Underground trains aren't anywhere near the size of the Sydney trains. They're cute. Like little red, white and blue caterpillars.

Off at Westminster, we step out of the station and Mel asks me the time. Of course, I go to look at my phone but there's BIG BEN staring me in the face, proudly declaring that it's 10.10pm. A couple of photos of Benny, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, then a short (FREEZING) stroll to Tower Bridge, past tower of London, and we had back to Mel's. What an exhilarating night! Seeing all these things in real life, and even all the regular buildings, some of which are so old and beautiful. This is bliss.

Waking up on my first day in London, I'd planned to take it easy (it was my jet-lag recovery day but I wasn't feeling jet-lagged at all! - thank you lorazepam and melatonin) and just go for a wander to a nearby cafe, drink a coffee (perfect because it was raining).

Alas, I had a bit of a freak out at the idea of being in this big, scary city all alone (Mel was at work) so I used my 'recovery day' and the rain as an excuse to stay home. Ah well.

Fortunately, Mel convinced me to come with her to her Bible Study group's social that night (curry and board games - so good). It was a mixed bunch to say the least! Mel and I, two other Aussies (from Perth), two from Northern Ireland, two from South Africa and even a young lady from Tajikistan! All the accents in the room were wonderful, and suffice it to say, it made playing 'Articulate' a bit of a challenge.

The most memorable character of the evening was the South African named Wik. Having worked as an interpreter previously, his English (not to mention his vocab) was astounding. I thought he was English for a while, because his accent was so thorough and proper (think of Hugh Grant in nearly any movie he's ever been in, except with confidence and having lived in SA for twelve months).

All gorgeous people; hoping to see them again at church on Sunday.

Oh, and on the way home we stopped at an ATM and I made my first cash withdrawal and put my hands on a twenty-pound note. How 'bout that!

Anyway, today is Day 2, and I left the house with Mel so that I would actually get out. We parted at the train station and now I have stranded myself in Leicester - nothing for it now but to explore for the rest of the day. Oh, and tonight we are going to see Cirque du Soleil's 'Quidam', which is being performed at the Royal Albert Hall. The Royal Albert Hall!!! Bam!

Let's do this.
SG

UK Blog #1: Goodbye Sydney, Hello Heathrow

You have to be at the airport by 4am for a 6am flight - what do you do?
Well, don't bother going to bed the night before. May as well use that time to pre-prepare your body clock to London time. If you're going to London, that is. If you're not, well, you may as well go back to bed.

So instead I stayed awake and caught a taxi into the International Airport at the most ungodly hour of 3.30am. I didn't think anybody could be perky and chatty at that hour, but nevertheless my taxi driver was full of it. Perk, that is. He came to Australia from Afghanistan twenty-eight years ago, arriving here about the same time I did. In my mind that makes him as Australian as I am. I got to hear his story about how his economics degree wasn't recognised, so he started working as an accountant, with some taxi shifts on the side. Now he works full time as a taxi driver, inspiring mirth into those who'd rather be asleep at that time of the morning. So thank you, friend. You set a good tone for my holiday.

My first experience going through customs and security was uneventful. Well, that said they did point the finger of judgement at my 110g tube of toothpaste. I don't know what they were afraid I was going to do with it - break into the cockpit and give the flight crew a good scrubbin', I guess. Still, to prove I wasn't a terrorist in the fight against tartar, I surrendered my Colgate guessing it would prove rather inconsequential to everyone except Mel, who I'll be meeting (and possibly revolting) in London. This proved to be wrong - more on that soon.

Let me stop here and share some lessons learnt thus far:

1. Don't wait to get hard foreign currency at the airport if you're flying out at stupid o'clock in the morning. The currency exchange places are all closed.
2. Nothing else is open either.
3. Don't try and smuggle your 56-piece swiss army knife aboard an international flight, or any other flight. Still not sure what happened to that young lady, God rest her soul.

Back to the story, where I'm sitting on my A380 (seat 56K) which boasted a cabin crew of 19, with a whopping 15 languages under their belt. Breakfast was served not long after take-off, though since I was trying to adjust to London time (nearing bedtime), I didn't see any problem in having a red wine with my omelette, baked beans and hash browns for breakfast. Though I admit my pallet is still reviling its abuse, the wine did wash down the sleeping tablets rather nicely, and I slept until lunchtime.

Lunchtime came around, in the form of a lamb tangine, which was super good! Unfortunately, something in it didn't quite agree with me, and I spent the rest of the flight periodically dashing to the bathroom to throw up said tangine (photos withheld). Perhaps this was my body's (or my conscience's, or God's) way of telling me not to drink red wine with breakfast. Injury was added to with the insult of not having my toothpaste anymore, so I was able to relive the taste of the delightful tangine all the way to Dubai, some several hours away. I had no problem with the idea of travelling by myself, though I will say that when you're sick and you're all by yourself, it does heighten the sense of vulnerability you feel.

On approach, I got a couple of nice photos of the UAE coastline. Nothing spectacular, unless you're me, in which case it's the first land you've seen in your life that isn't Australia. It was delightful seeing some of the architecture of the houses while we landed, and though the CBD is a far way away, I did see a glimpse of the Burj Khafti from inside the airport.

Which is where I sit now. Thankfully I don't feel crook anymore. I've found my gate (B13 for those interested, probably only my father) and am sitting here drinking a coffee and eating a blueberry muffin. The coffee was purchased from a rather safe looking cafe, which looked like it had a proper barista making proper coffee. I don't need to tell you it's a disappointment, though all credit - it's better than what I was expecting. Probably shouldn't have gotten a large though...

Soon, now that I've found my gate, I'll get up and wander the shops. Advice given to me was to load USD onto a card to use in Dubai, though my cafe only listed prices in AED; a currency I don't have on my card. Wondering if it pulled it out of my USD or if I'll be hit with some whopping penalty fee later on. Needless to say, I'm hesitant to buy anything unless I can pay USD for it.

Ah well, there's nothing for it. I'm going to go for a shop and see if I can't accidentally spend my entire holiday budget in bank fees.

****

So the highlight of my Dutyfree shopping spree in Dubai was the Bounty chocolate milk I found. Chocolate coconut milk. So good. Why is this not in Australia?

I also discovered that in Dubai, you can buy all sorts of medications off the shelf. All I needed was Panadol, but had I needed contraceptive pills, steroid creams, Seretide inhalers, there it was all their for my self-medicating convenience! Hooray!

But I just stuck with the Panadol.

The Dubai to Heathrow leg of the trip was comparably shorter, and nicer. Some Big Bang Theory, and a couple of movies later we were on approach. I finally got around to seeing the movie 'Gravity' with Sandra Bullock. Great movie, though possibly not the best choice as an inflight movie. Nevertheless gravity was working in our favour as we started flying over England.

It was an exhilarating feeling, flying over Europe from Dubai, passing over Kuwait, Iraq, Constantinople, Germany. I saw snow-capped peaks from the air! Until it was dark. Then it was just random collections of lights and I had to guess which places they were. Still, all that excitement couldn't beat seeing the lights of the coast of England through the window as we crossed the English Channel.

While my ancestors came to Aus from various regions of the UK four or five generations ago, there was still a vague sense of 'coming home' excitement which accompanied my arrival. And I do feel a sense of being 'at home' here.

It's nice.

SG

My deal with society

Hello Society.

I propose we strike a deal. It's become apparent over the past few weeks that your state of affairs has, in my humble opinion, taken a turn for the worst.

It seems we live in an age where politics is no longer constructive - parties claw and snipe at each other like rabid dogs, and sadly a lot of that trickles down into the rest of us. I thought we'd seen the depth of the state of things when a PM could be sexualised with some awful dinner menu, but there was worse yet to come.

The lowest point (to date) was when a political commentator's face was photo-shopped to a man raping a dog and broadcast to the entire nation, a pleasure I had the privilege of paying for with my taxes.

I'd hoped that reason, taste and propriety would take a stand and all would be put right - or at least, wrong would be acknowledged. But alas, even the victim's own son would not defend his father's dignity. Quite the opposite.

The fact is, and please don't be offended, that I am happy to part ways. I think we've said what needs to be said to one another.

I'm sure we both agree, however, that there needs to be some level of relationship kept intact - not for any children of course, but for the sake of keeping up appearances. Because I know how much you value appearance.

So here's my proposal.

I will get up, go to work and continue doing my part for my own little corner of the world. I will be paid, and I will in turn pay my taxes. Apart from that, I see little need for us to engage, and I hope you'll agree. I'm sure it will save us both a lot of time and angst!

I hope you don't see this as a cop-out. Maybe it is, but I'm okay with that. Some are built for the more robust relationships, but not me. I tire easily, and probably let things get to me more than they should, which is exhausting.

At any rate, we've had some good times, and I do want to wish you all the best. For now, however, I'm checking out.

Peace.

Avoiding the inevitable

Tonight I realised (realised, read 'admitted') why I sit here night after night on Facebook for a good half hour or so before finally trying to go to sleep.

I am avoiding facing tomorrow.

I am anxious about tomorrow.

There's a lot that could happen; a lot that will happen. Undoubtedly, potential for a lot to go wrong.

And the sooner I go to sleep, the sooner I'll have to face it. So logically, if I don't go to sleep, I won't have to face it, right?

If only that were true. It works for a little while, but eventually tomorrow will be here, and I'll have to face it but without as much sleep.

I'm not sure why I'm worried about tomorrow. It should be pretty straightforward:

• Coffee with a mate
• 4 hours of lectures with a monotonic lecturer (potential for catch-up on sleep, there)
• 1 hour of Aural training (I genuinely love these classes)
• Dinner with my pastor
• Music rehearsal with a friend

Easy. So why am I anxious?

I'm not sure, but even this blog post is another avoidance tactic. I guess it's time to sleep on it.

Something I've learned from an atheist friend

Atheists and non-atheists are very different. That’s obvious. While we may share some views about life and morality, the foundations which underpin these views are very different.

Likewise when it comes to how we find meaning and purpose in our life. We all long to ascribe some form a greater ‘Meaning’ to the 80 years or so with which we are given.

Speaking as a theist (specifically a Christian), I have often struggled to grasp how the atheist manages to find this Meaning. If we are all, in fact, merely time and chance acting on matter, destined to return to the dust and nothing more, then everything (both in the individual and global perspective) can be of no consequence.  If everything is of no consequence, then why would one invest oneself in others? The benefits to either party are brief – whether they are forgotten and irrelevant in 1 year, 10 years, or 100 years, they will be forgotten.

The Bible paints a different picture. It says that everything is relevant, and everything has eternal consequence.

Which party would you expect to be the more charitable, generous, less-self-seeking? The one whose belief system holds that there may not be any greater meaning beyond death, or the one who is convinced that there is?

Recently, I have had the pleasure of making friends with an atheist whose charitable endeavours, compassion and good-will would bring shame to many Christians (myself included). While our views on many things differ significantly, what has stuck me is altruistic nature.

This isn’t because I think atheists cannot be altrustic – I don’t. The question it does raise for me however, is why do many Christians seem to lack the altruism and zeal for ‘making the most of life’ that seem present in many atheists/agnostics? 

I found this question perplexing, but Timothy Keller (in his book The Reason for God, 2009, p.19) makes a rather succinct point which helps explain this.

Christianity not only leads its members to believe people of other faiths have goodness and wisdom to offer, it also leads them to expect that many will live lives morally superior to their own. Most people in our culture believe that, if there is a God, we can relate to him and go to heaven through leading a good life. Let's call this the 'moral improvement' view. Christianity teaches the very opposte. In the Christian understanding, Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. Rather, he comes to forgive and save us through his life and death in our place. God's grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for Saviour.

Christians, then should expect to find non-believers who are much nicer, kinder, wiser and better than they are. Why? Christians believers are not accepted by God because of their oral performance, wisdom or virtue, but because of Christ's work on their behalf.

That said, does that mean Christians like me don't need to be altruistic, or standing up for the poor and down-trodden? Not at all! Rather, I think that any such acts for Christians, instead of coming from an idea of spiritual or moral atonement, come from a heart responding in thanks to The greatest altruistic act in history - Jesus giving His life for us on the Cross.

So I want to thank my friend for his (unwitting) gift to me. I hope there are other lessons I'll be able to learn from him, but I hope and pray even more that he will one day know that God loves him, and he'll do even more amazing things for others because the amazing things that God has done for him.